The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1933, Page 136

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136

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

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also feared now that we should have a high sea.
But this proved a false alarm. The sea never be-
came half as high as it was last November. There
were no swells at all. The sea was very choppy, and
that is all. Of course, we got a lot of salt spray.
It did not rain much during the storm. The wind
continued blowing for some time, but by one o’clock
we could tell that the force of the storm was broken.
It was pitch-dark, so that it was hardly safe to
venture outside. The people therefore remained in
the mission house until daylight. With so many
persons in the building, naturally no one got any
sleep except the smaller children. I had them
placed on the bed. It was a rather amusing sight
to see that bed with all the children on it.

“The next morning revealed a dreary world. It
looked like a winter day. Leaves were blown from
the trees; many of them were pruned of their
branches, with the stumps still standing; some were
uprooted. Some of the house roofs had holes in
them. Griffin’s and Monoah’s kitchen went down.
But as a whole not much damage was done to the
houses. They can easily be repaired.

“Where the storm did the greatest damage was
in the fields and groves of the people. Here it
worked havoc. Practically nothing is left except the
young sweet potatoes, which will not be fit to eat yet
for at least three months. JEverything else seems to
be destroyed. The banana-trees look as if some one
had taken an ax and chopped some of them into
little pieces. Mr. Hyde lost three hundred bunches
and nearly all his trees. It is the common belief
of every one down there that they will have food
for only about two weeks.

“What will this mean for our work? The grape-
fruit crop was damaged greatly. Estimates for the
whole island vary from 50 to 70 per cent. of loss.
Some people suffered a 100-per-cent. loss. This
means no work for the South Coast people. But the
Lord will provide for us in some way. All we can do
is to take a little stronger grip, praying the Lord to
bless our work in the future as He has in the past.”

Thus far the letter.

F. C. Strevrert, Secretary of Missions.
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Building a Church in Africa.

The following interesting article is from the pen
of one who visited the Presbyterian missions in
Kamerun: —

The building of a native Church is a difficult
-task, and its accomplishment requires years of pa-

tient, devoted, and undaunted endeavor. The work
must be done not with undue haste nor yet with
overcaution which delays too long, for the native
Church must learn wisdom through mistakes and
must grow strong through success won from failure.
Leaders must be trained with the utmost care, we
must help to establish the church organization and
polity, we must give it the full Gospel; but always
we must remember that it is a primitive Church,
a new chapter in ecclesiastical history. The mis-
sionary policy must not be to fetter and bind it with
unnecessary strictures of the past or trammel it with
needless foreign traditions. We are putting new
wine into new skins, and we must lead out this
native Church into the glorious liberty of the sons
of God. Where shall we find a greater undertaking
or a more fascinating and alluring adventure for
God? Indeed, when we face it and meditate upon it
and allow our fancy to play over it, any inclination
which one has ever had to pity the missionary will
forever pass away, and we shall congratulate him
upon his privilege in laying the foundation of the
kingdom of God.

It is my purpose here to tell briefly some proc-
esses in the building of the Bulu Church in the
Kamerun country of West Africa.

It was only some thirty years ago that A.C.
Good first visited the Bulus. Up to that time they
had never seen a white man, and the sight of him
filled them with fear. They offered to trade with
him, but he told them that he had not come for
trade, but to tell them the Word of God. He was
a pioneer. He cut the first swath through the jungle
and let in the light that never was on sea or land.
That bush path blossomed with flowers more fair
than any jungle orchids, and fruits matured of
greater worth than any tropical growth. Here it
was revealed how beautiful upon the mountains are
the feet of them that bring good tidings, that.
publish peace.

Our first impression of the African Church was.
received at Olama, where we attended a Communion
service on our first Sunday in the Kamerun. The
people had been coming in from the outlying sta-
tions for several days, traveling long distances, car-
rying their food on their backs in baskets. As we
erossed the ferry over the Nlong, several native
women crossed with us. I tried to lift one of their
baskets, which must have weighed all of eighty
pounds, and the little bright-faced woman had car-
ried it eight miles. Mr. Patterson, the missionary,
was holding his all-day session meetings in the